For the second time in three seasons, Pinewood made a trip to Stockton to play powerful St. Mary’s for a berth in the Northern California Open Division girls basketball championship game.

And just like in 2016, Pinewood had a good bus ride back to Los Altos Hills.

It was smiles — and relief — for the third-seeded Panthers as they left San Joaquin Delta College with a 59-56 victory to set up another date with Archbishop Mitty.

The Central Coast Section powers will return to Santa Clara University on Saturday night for the regional championship 15 days after Mitty defeated Pinewood 76-62 at SCU for the section’s Open Division crown.

St. Mary’s, which trailed by 19 points in the first half, had a chance to take the lead with 10 seconds to play but missed two free throws.

Jump hit two free throws moments later to complete the scoring.

“It was really, really sketchy,” Pinewood coach Doc Scheppler said.

The Panthers took command early, outscoring second-seeded St. Mary’s 25-14 in the first quarter on their way to a 39-27 halftime lead.

“We got off to such a great start,” said Scheppler, whose team had not played in 10 days because Carondelet withdrew from the tournament. “They were trapping, pressing all over the court, and we’re getting wide open looks because of great decisions and great passes.

“They switched to man and pressure us a little and we got to the rim and finished plays.”

But a late flurry of points by St. Mary’s cut Pinewood’s lead from 19 to 12 at halftime.

The advantage was still 12 entering the fourth quarter, but the gap soon tightened.

“It was like desperation time for them and tied up in knots for us,” Scheppler said. “Classic psychological example of us playing free at the start and us playing shackled in the last nine minutes. We were carefree in the first quarter, the first quarter and a half, and then we were trying to protect what we haven’t accomplished yet. That’s where teams get in trouble.”

But Pinewood survived, improving its record to 26-2.

St. Mary’s finished the season 27-3.

Woodside Priory 55, San Joaquin Memorial 35: Before tip-off in Portola Valley on Tuesday night, Priory girls basketball coach Buck Matthews tuned into the NFHS Network to watch a portion of the first half of Pinewood’s game.

“I was cheering them on,” said Matthews, whose own Panthers are also members of the West Bay Athletic League.

Top-seeded Priory (16-14) proceeded to take care of business against No. 4 San Joaquin Memorial (24-6) in the NorCal Division IV semifinals, with 18 points and 10 rebounds from 6-foo-4 junior Ila Lane, who went 10 of 15 from the charity stripe.

“She lived at the free-throw line,” Matthews said

It’s only the second time in school history that Priory will play for a NorCal title after coming up just short last year in the Division V final, 66-58, at eventual state champion Eastside Prep, another WBAL team.

“I know the girls remember that moment,” Matthews said. “And on Saturday they get a chance to be the home team, which I know our record indicates otherwise, but we played a very tough schedule and more than half those games that we lost were without our point guard.

“But we never made any excuses and I think the playoffs, especially tonight, showed we’re battle-tested.”

Priory point guard Tatiana Reese hit a trio of 3-pointers to finish with 17 points, four assists and seven rebounds, while the X-factors were Lala Niu and Gabby Ruiz with nine and eight points, respectively.

Miramonte 69, Presentation 52: Clair Steele scored 32 as fourth-seeded Miramonte cruised past top-seeded Presentation to advance to the NorCal Division I final Saturday at Santa Clara University against Sacred Heart Cathedral, a 69-47 winner over St. Francis.

Sharon Roldan finished with 14 points to lead Presentation.

Sacred Heart Cathedral 69, St. Francis 47: St. Francis faced a mighty challenge Tuesday night in San Francisco, having lost all three meetings against its West Catholic Athletic League foe entering the NorCal Division I semifinal matchup.

It didn’t get any better for the 11th-seeded Lancers (16-13) on Tuesday.

SHC, the No. 10 seed, roared to a 16-7 lead after one quarter and 37-23 cushion at the halftime break.

St. Francis closed within eight through three quarters, but SHC (14-14) dominated the final eight minutes to reach the regional final.

Valley Christian 44, Eureka 34: Valley Christian held second-seeded Eureka to just 13 points in the second half, rallying to defeat the Loggers and advance to the NorCal Division II final Saturday night at top-seeded Pleasant Valley-Chico, a 55-42 winner over San Ramon Valley.

Katie Mason led Valley Christian with 15 points, doing all her damage from beyond the three-point arc.

“She caught fire,” Eureka coach Clifford Napoleon told the Eureka Times Standard. “We knew about her, we game planned for her, but she hit her shots. You have to hand it to her.”

West Campus 71, Sacred Heart Prep 34: After an upset of the No. 1 seed in the NorCal Division III bracket, a trip to Sacramento marked the end for eight-seeded SHP (18-11), the CCS Division IV champion.

No. 5 West Campus (27-7) erupted for 28 points in the second quarter to take a 43-18 lead into the locker room and never looked back, with a game-high 29 points from Nia Johnson, while fellow senior co-captain KJ Jefferson finished with 22.

Boys

St. Mary’s-Stockton 67, Campolindo 65: Carter Mahaney scored 28 points and David Ahazie had 16 to lead Campolindo to the brink of victory, but the Cougars fell just short of reaching the NorCal Division II final, losing to St. Mary’s-Stockton 67-65 at San Joaquin Delta College.

Campo jumped to a 17-8 lead after one quarter and held a 35-28 advantage at halftime.

St. Mary’s cut the deficit to three entering the fourth quarter and rallied to earn a matchup at top-seeded Alameda in the regional final Saturday night.

Campolindo had a chance to tie the score 66-66 but missed a free throw.

Then, after St. Mary’s made 1 of 2 free throws, the game ended with a St. Mary’s steal.

“To the credit of Campolindo — who is really good, and was making shot after shot — it wasn’t from lack of effort,” St. Mary’s coach Ken Green told the Stockton Record. “They were just getting to their spots and hitting contested shots.”

Central Catholic 59, Valley Christian 55: The postseason run ended for Valley Christian on Tuesday night in Modesto as the Warriors could not hold off their hosts over the final eight minutes.

Central Catholic charged back from a 12-point deficit at the start of the fourth quarter to reach the NorCal Division III final on Saturday night at No. 2 seed Pleasant Valley-Chico.

Joshua Hamilton led Central Catholic with 33 points, 17 in the fourth quarter.

Darren Sabedra is a sports reporter and the high school sports editor, overseeing prep coverage throughout the Bay Area. He's been with the Bay Area News Group since the early 1990s and has covered many sports beats, including Stanford football and basketball, pro baseball and the NFL. He also has worked on the sports copy desk.

Vytas Mazeika is a sports reporter at The Daily News based out of Menlo Park. He covers athletics at every level, from high school to Stanford to the pros. He also designs the sports pages and copy edits for The Daily News print edition. Mazeika graduated from Carlmont High in 1994 and earned an English bachelor's degree from UCLA.